


(through it all) nobody gets me like you do

by SJAandDWfan



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Camp Counsellor AU, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-01 23:56:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16775491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SJAandDWfan/pseuds/SJAandDWfan
Summary: “This is going to be the best summer ever,” was the first thing Ray said to her.“Counting on it,” Sara replied, pulling back from the hug with a grin. “And it all starts right here. Rip, I hope you have good news for me.”Rip smiled wryly from his desk. “I suppose that depends on what your definition of the term is.”“Mysterious,” Sara snorted. “But really, please tell me I’m rooming with Zari again.”“Not quite,” Rip said. “I have, however, assigned you to someone I think you’ll have a very productive summer with. You’re in the Oak cabin this year. With Ava Sharpe.”Sara’s eyes widened. “You have got to be kidding me.”*or, sara and ava are co-counsellors because of course they are, zari and charlie get off on annoying each other, and ray and nora are not-so-secretly soft for each other





	1. it's an automatic rainy day (when i see you)

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY KIDS HERE WE GO
> 
> i've had this in my head since the beginning of the season, but it's only been the past couple of weeks i've been able to start writing the first chapter because there was a lot of planning to get through. if all goes to plan this fic will be about 15 chapters, hopefully of about 10k words each.
> 
> because of this, i decided to put out the first chapter as a sort of indicator of whether people would be interested in me writing the full fic. i've just started a new job in the last month or two so this fic will be an absolute labour of love and i just want to make sure people would actually be interested in reading it! so please do let me know what you think, because i really do want to write the whole thing and i will if there's enough interest, but i want to make sure the (probably lengthly) process is worth it!
> 
> also, i'm trying out a bit of a different writing style with this fic, including multiple perspectives throughout the story, simply because there's so much i want to cover with different characters and relationships over the course of the plot!
> 
> okay, that's enough rambling for one night! on with the fic!
> 
> fic title from "i'm only me when i'm with you" by taylor swift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter title from "automatic rainy day" by the go-go's (but the muscial head over heels turned it into a duet between two women and well... fellas it's gay)

It was early afternoon by the time Camp Lakewood came into view.

Sara drummed her fingers on the dashboard impatiently, sitting up from where she’d been slouched in the passenger seat of the car. This place held so many memories – had done for years – and there was always something slightly magical about seeing it again for the first time each summer.

Besides, Sara didn’t know if she’d be able to come back after this year, so she was determined to savour every bit of it. Starting right from the moment the car passed under the hand-made overhead sign and down the forest track that would take them towards the main part of camp.

Laurel glanced over at her, and Sara saw a smile cross her sister’s face out of the corner of her eye. Laurel focused on the track once more, gripping the wheel a little tighter as the car bounced over the tree roots that broke the surface of the forest floor.

“Are you excited to see everyone again?” she asked.

Sara grinned. “Yeah. The last time all five of us were together was the end of last summer.”

“College kept you all busy, I know,” Laurel nodded. “At least that won’t be a problem now.”

“I guess,” Sara said. “But I’m sure life will find a whole new way to keep us apart during the off-season; it always seems to.”

Laurel gave her a sympathetic glance. “I know you really missed them this year.”

Sara didn’t answer. It wasn’t really a question – Laurel knew her so well that she knew she didn’t need to say anything for her to know that she was right. The past year had been tough, and stressful, and packed so full of activity that there hadn’t really been time for Sara to see her friends at all. She’d met up with Zari briefly a couple of times, and the five of them still had their ‘legends’ groupchat, but it was never the same as all of them being together. Especially here, the place that had brought them all together.

Sara bit her lip to stop a smile from taking over as the car drew closer. The vast main building came into view, its wooden panelling appearing to hold as solid as it had the first time Sara had laid eyes on it twelve years ago. The cabins started to become visible, too; twelve big ones for the campers, each with a smaller cabin next to it for the counsellors. Last summer, Sara and her best friend Zari had been co-counsellors of the Maple cabin and it had been one of the best times of her life. She hoped that they’d be paired up again, like their other friends Ray and Nate always seemed to be. As the Camp Director, Rip was in charge of cabin assignments, and he hadn’t yet put Sara with someone she hadn’t gotten along with, so she was hopeful that this year would be the same.

Laurel parked up on the small gravelled lot by the House, which is what everyone had taken to calling the main building over the years, and Sara scrambled to take her seatbelt off and push the car door open.

Taking a deep breath as she stood up and stretched her legs, Sara allowed her eyes to slip shut as a slow smile spread across her face. There was something about camp that made her feel at peace, and she felt like this summer would turn out to be the perfect de-stressor after graduation and before she had to figure out what to do with her life without the structure of education.

Sara checked her phone, although she knew as well as anyone that there was no signal at camp. A message from Ray had come through on the legends groupchat about an hour ago saying he had just arrived. Sara suspected that he had probably been the first person here besides Rip. The rest of the counsellors would be arriving throughout the day, ready for the campers to get here tomorrow morning and for camp to officially begin.

Knowing Ray, he’d probably be in the House helping Rip to hand out assignments, or setting up his and Nate’s cabin (assuming they were rooming together again).

Sara turned her attention to where Laurel was getting out of her car and walking around to the trunk. She hauled Sara’s suitcase out and lowered it to the ground. Sara hurried over to help her, taking hold of her suitcase with one hand and the bag containing her archery set with the other. It wasn’t anything fancy – Sara couldn’t afford fancy – but the bow was sturdy and accurate, and it felt like an extension of Sara’s body by this point. The leather of her arm guard was well-worn, and the arrows flew straight. All in all, this archery set had yet to let her down.

“At least let me help with something,” Laurel teased, closing the trunk of the car again.

Sara looked between her suitcase and her archery bag, and then shrugged off her backpack instead. Laurel laughed as she held it out for her to take, but accepted it anyway.

It wasn’t that Sara didn’t trust her sister to carry any of her stuff. It was just that she

liked to do things herself, and that extended to things like carrying her own bags. She’d relied too much on Laurel as a little kid, but camp was something Sara had always done without her.

She hefted her bag over her shoulder and dragged her suitcase over the gravel towards the House, knowing that Laurel would fall into step beside her as soon as she’d locked the car. Together, they made their way down the dirt path towards the rustic civilisation of the camp.

Sara lifted her suitcase up the three steps onto the porch of the main building, walking through the open front doors with a smile. She took a path through the door on the right which lead to Rip’s office, the same place she’d gone at the beginning of every year as a counsellor to get her cabin assignment.

Laurel followed her into the office, looking around with interest. It wasn’t like Laurel had never dropped her off at camp before, but she didn’t get to see much of it, and Sara always noticed her taking it all in – learning where Sara spent ten weeks of her life every summer.

Rip was sitting at his desk and, sure enough, Ray was standing beside him. The two men were deep in conversation until Ray noticed Sara walk through the door. His face broke into a brilliant smile, crossing the room towards them. Sara let go of her suitcase handle in anticipation of the hug Ray greeted her with, stretching up on her toes so as to not be completely dwarfed by her friend.

“This is going to be the best summer ever,” was the first thing Ray said to her.

“Counting on it,” Sara replied, pulling back from the hug with a grin. “And it all starts right here. Rip, I hope you have good news for me.”

Rip smiled wryly from his desk. “I suppose that depends on what your definition of the term is.”

“Mysterious,” Sara snorted. “But really, please tell me I’m rooming with Zari again.”

“Not quite,” Rip said. “I have, however, assigned you to someone I think you’ll have a very productive summer with.”

Sara narrowed her eyes. She had no idea what Rip was planning, but he did have a tendency to try out interesting combinations when it came to co-counsellors. Last year, he’d put Mick and John Constantine together, and that had gone terribly. Sara didn’t know if it was the reason John wasn’t coming back this year, or whether he’d just had enough of camp, but Sara was sure his rooming situation hadn’t helped his decision at any rate.

“Then what’s my assignment?” she asked.

Rip scanned his papers, although Sara was sure that was all for show.

“You’re in the Oak cabin this year,” Rip told her. “With Ava Sharpe.”

Sara’s eyes widened. “You have _got_ to be kidding me.”

* * *

The drive to Camp Lakewood was a lot easier this year. For starters, Ava knew where she was going this time. Last year she’d gotten lost on her way to camp, and that had only been the start of a pretty disastrous summer. It had improved towards the end, but Ava still didn’t know why Rip had asked her to be a counsellor again this year. She still didn’t quite know why she’d agreed.

Even if the end of camp last year had been alright, the kids were still mean.

Ava chewed on her bottom lip anxiously as she pulled into the makeshift parking lot. Her car would stay here for the majority of the summer, and she just hoped that any campers apt at playing pranks would stay away from it. At any rate, she made sure there was nothing valuable left inside.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and climbed out. The forest air filled her lungs, and Ava felt herself relax slightly for the first time since she’d set off. She checked her watch as she moved to open the trunk of her car, seeing that it was coming up to four in the afternoon. A little later than when she’d wanted to get to camp, but still probably earlier than about half the counsellors.

She hoped Rip would put her with someone nice again. Last year, she’d been with Nora Darhk, and while they’d gotten off to a rough start, Nora had ended up becoming pretty much Ava’s one and only friend at camp.

Well, one and only human friend.

Taking her suitcase in one hand and gripping the strap of her backpack with the other, Ava set off towards the House. As she passed by a couple of cabins, she saw counsellors going back and forth, setting up their living spaces and preparing the main cabins for the kids’ arrival tomorrow.

Ava kept going, down the path towards the House and up the steps. She turned away from the door she remembered led to the mess hall, and through the door to Rip’s office instead. At least that was something she’d gotten right first time this year.

Rip was alone at his desk, deep in some paperwork, and so Ava cleared her throat as she entered. Rip started slightly, but his expression relaxed into a smile as he saw Ava standing in front of him.

“Ava, good to see you,” he said, and Ava nodded somewhat awkwardly. “I suppose you’re here for your assignment.”

Ava nodded again, resisting the urge to point out that she wouldn’t be here for literally anything else. Rip scanned his paper until he found her name, although Ava had a feeling he’d already memorised all of the co-counsellor pairings.

“It says here that I’ve assigned you to the Oak cabin with Sara Lance.”

Ava’s jaw dropped. Rip looked up at her, and Ava hastily schooled her features into something that didn’t give away the dread she was feeling.

“Right,” she said. “That’s… that’s fine.”

Rip looked at her amusedly, and Ava thought he could probably see right through her.

“I’ll go… set up,” Ava said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. “Before she gets here, you know.”

“She’s already here,” Rip said, and Ava’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “She arrived a couple of hours ago, I believe.”

“Oh,” Ava said. “That’s… okay.”

“You probably think I’m crazy,” Rip said, “but I wouldn’t have assigned you two as co-counsellors if I didn’t think it would work.”

Ava bit back a retort about how he’d said the same thing last year about Mick Rory and John Constantine, and walked back out of the office. She still had a vague idea where the Oak cabin was from last year.

Setting off in the direction of the lake, Ava tried not to let the anxiety rise in her throat. She’d hoped for the familiarity of Nora and the Pine cabin (although maybe a new set of campers would be for the best considering how badly the whole ‘bonding’ thing had gone last year), but she was being thrown in at the deep end yet again. From memory, Ava knew that the Oak cabin was one of the nine to eleven year old cabins. Last year, she’d been with the twelve to fourteen year olds, so maybe slightly younger kids wouldn’t have learned how to be mean yet.

Ava scoffed. Even the six year olds could be mean.

After a few minutes of searching, Ava found the Oak cabin. It was the closest cabin to the lake, which had to be some kind of a sick joke Rip was playing on her. Ava gripped the handle of her suitcase tighter as she approached, hearing some clattering from inside. Clearly, Sara hadn’t finished unpacking.

Ava pushed the door open to find Sara sprawled on the floor, trying in vain to push her suitcase under her bed. The frame looked to be too low to the ground, and Sara was muttering darkly under her breath. She hadn’t noticed her yet, so Ava closed the door a little louder than necessary to announce her presence.

Sara jumped a little, her head whipping round as she stared at Ava.

Ava looked between Sara and the bed she was trying to fit the suitcase under, and Sara narrowed her eyes at her.

“Got a problem, Sharpe?” she asked pointedly, not moving from the floor.

“Just wondering how long it will take you to realise that this—” Ava gestured to the scene in front of her, “—isn’t going to work.”

Sara scoffed. “It will.”

Ava rolled her eyes, sensing that there was no point in arguing the finer points of exactly _why_ what Sara was trying to do was impossible. She crossed the small room to her own bed, the sheets laid out in preparation for her. She left her suitcase in the corner while she undertook the first task of making up her bed ready for tonight (something she’d noticed Sara still had yet to do). Rip had said she’d been here for two hours. Surely she hadn’t been spending this long wrestling with her damn suitcase.

Ava didn’t know too much about Sara Lance, but she seriously doubted that she was that stupid.

Once she’d succeeded in making her bed, Ava set about unpacking her clothes into the chest of drawers that was against the wall on her side of the room. Each of them had one, as well as a small bedside table. The beds were pretty tiny, as she’d discovered last year, but they were comfortable and clean. Honestly, Ava was just happy that they didn’t have bunk beds. There was a rug in the middle of the floor, and a window by each bed. All in all, it was simple yet cosy.

Although, Ava predicted that sharing a cabin with Sara would turn the feeling into stifling more than cosy.

She heard a victorious sound from behind her and turned around to see Sara getting up off the floor with her suitcase squeezed under the bed. Sara looked at her smugly, nodding down at it with pride.

“Told you,” she sing-songed, and Ava gritted her teeth. Clearly, it was going to be a long summer.

“Only took you two hours,” Ava said, and Sara pulled a confused face.

“Wait, you think the first thing I did was unpack?” she asked.

“Well, yes,” Ava said. It was, after all, the first thing she herself had done.

Sara laughed. “That’s hilarious. No, I went for a walk around camp with my sister.”

“Oh,” Ava said. She hadn’t been expecting that. Truth be told, she didn’t even know Sara had a sister. “Is she still here?”

“No,” Sara said, expression turning a bit sullen. “She went back home about ten minutes before you got here.”

So it had only taken Sara a little over ten minutes to unpack and get the suitcase under the bed. Still, Ava reasoned in her head, that was still an absurd amount of time to spend on something that clearly wouldn’t work.

Only it _had_ worked, and that annoyed Ava.

“So,” Ava said. “Co-counsellors.”

Sara nodded, not looking too pleased about it either, and for some reason that annoyed Ava even more.

“I don’t know what Rip thinks he’s doing,” Sara muttered, folding her arms across her chest. “We don’t exactly have the same counselling styles.”

The way she said it, like one of them was the right way and one of them was the wrong way, made Ava’s blood boil. Sure, Ava didn’t have as much counselling experience, and she hadn’t spent too much time around kids, and half the time she didn’t even _like_ the kids, but that didn’t mean that Sara was better than her.

“Oh, you mean that one of us is responsible and the other one is essentially just another ten year old?” she fired back, and Sara raised her eyebrows.

“You need to loosen up,” she said, moving towards the door. “No wonder the kids call you ‘stick-up-the-butt Sharpe’.”

And with that, Sara left, clearly not in the mood for whatever argument they were already heading towards. Ava stood by her bed, frozen. She didn’t know the kids were calling her that, but she wasn’t entirely surprised.

So why did it hurt so much to hear?

* * *

Zari walked out of the House and almost straight into Sara.

“Woah,” she said, catching Sara by the shoulders. “Where’s the fire?”

“Sorry, Z,” Sara said. “Wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“Everything okay?” Zari asked. Sara looked irritated about something.

“Fine,” Sara sighed. “Ava Sharpe is my co-counsellor and she’s already pissing me off, is all.”

“It’s day one,” Zari said. “Actually, scratch that, day one is tomorrow. So, it’s technically day zero.”

“What can I say, she’s very annoying,” Sara said. “What about you? Just got your assignment?”

“Yep,” Zari said. “Cedar cabin.”

“That’s another nine to eleven cabin, right?” Sara asked.

Zari nodded. “Apparently my co-counsellor is new. Mona, I think Rip said her name was.”

“Have you met her yet?” Sara asked distractedly.

“Dude, I only just got here,” Zari said, pushing Sara’s shoulder affectionately. She loved Sara, but she could be dense sometimes.

“Right, right,” Sara said. “Sorry. Not really in a clear headspace right now.”

“Ava Sharpe is that bad?” Zari asked disbelievingly.

“Laurel left to go home not too long ago,” Sara said quietly, and Zari suddenly understood. Sara always missed Laurel, especially over the first couple of days. She had done for as long as Zari had known her. It didn’t help that Laurel’s birthday always fell during the time Sara was away at camp, either, but the first few days were always the roughest. Zari knew that even now at twenty-two, Sara still needed her big sister.

“We went for a walk around camp before she left though,” Sara said with a fond smile. “That was nice.”

Zari slung her arm around Sara’s shoulders, leading her off in the direction of the Birch cabin. “Well, if you want to avoid your new roommate, you can come help me unpack instead.”

“Deal.”

Mona, who had already arrived and set up her half of the room, proved to be very sweet. She was perhaps a bit too sunny for Zari, but she nonetheless appreciated the fact that she had a nice co-counsellor that she’d most likely get along with.

Sara hung out with them for a while, no doubt trying to stay away from her own cabin and Ava Sharpe for as long as possible. Zari didn’t really know what the deal with Ava was. She hadn’t seemed like a horrible person last summer, just too strict with the kids and a bit of a teacher’s pet with Rip.

Then again, she didn’t know the specifics of Sara and Ava’s conversation, and she suspected that Sara had been hoping to room with Zari again this summer. Zari had been hoping for that, too; their midnight feasts with the kids in their cabin had been a lot of fun and a really good way to bond with them and find out if anything was troubling them. Zari didn’t know yet how Mona would feel about breaking curfew.

Mona was chatting away happily at Sara, who appeared lost in thought, although either Mona didn’t mind it or she hadn’t noticed that she was essentially being ignored. Sara nodded and hummed thoughtfully in all the right places, and it struck Zari just how good Sara was at pretending that she was listening. She wondered idly how often Sara had pulled that trick with her and made a mental note to ask later.

Mona paused for breath, and Zari nudged Sara’s shoulder with her own from where they were both sitting on Zari’s bed.

“You okay?” she asked quietly.

“Peachy,” Sara said with a sigh. “Just wondering when I have to go back and face the co-counsellor from hell.”

“You’ve had one conversation,” Zari reminded her.

“She called me irresponsible,” Sara huffed, folding her arms. “I’m plenty responsible. I’ve been a counsellor longer than she has, anyway, so where does she get off acting like she’s better than me? The kids hate her.”

“Are you saying that you don’t even feel a little bit bad about what they did to her last year?” Zari asked. “You went on about it enough when it happened.”

Sara glared at her.

Mona cleared her throat somewhat awkwardly. “What happened last year?”

Right, Mona was new, Zari thought. She wouldn’t know.

“Okay, so Ava was a little bit strict with the campers,” Zari tried to put it delicately, and Sara scoffed. “Okay, so she was way too strict with them. The kids didn’t like the bootcamp she was putting them through, so halfway through camp last year, they pulled a prank on her and she ended up being pushed into the lake one night.”

“That’s awful,” Mona frowned.

Zari shrugged. “Most people thought she kind of had it coming, but yeah, it was pretty mean of them. It was her co-counsellor that helped her out of the water – Nora – and she kind of took over the running of the cabin for the rest of the summer. Ava didn’t really want anything to do with them. I’m a little surprised she came back this year.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “I bet Rip begged her to. He’s so desperate for some law and order here, I don’t think he realises it’s ever going to happen.”

“Still, he must have a plan,” Zari pointed out. “He put you and Ava together this year for a reason.”

“Yeah, because he likes to watch me suffer,” Sara groaned. “I’m telling you, this is going to be the worst summer ever.”

* * *

“This is already the worst summer ever,” Ava sighed, resting her head on Nora’s shoulder.

Nora patted the side of her head only a little clumsily, probably still unused to a lot of physical contact after several months away from Ava. Even before the end of summer, they hadn’t exactly been too touchy-feely.

But they’d been talking all throughout the off-season, phone calls and text messages quickly becoming normal, and so Ava had let her guard down around Nora without really realising it.

She pulled back to give her a bit of space, settling further along the bed in Nora’s shared cabin. Her co-counsellor hadn’t arrived yet, and Ava was making the most of a Sara Lance-free space.

“You were around her for, like, fifteen minutes,” Nora pointed out.

“Fifteen minutes too long,” Ava muttered darkly, and Nora rolled her eyes.

“What exactly did she say?”

Ava huffed. “She said that we have very different counselling styles, and that she didn’t know why Rip put us together.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Nora said.

“No, but it was the way she said it,” Ava continued. “She said it like I was this monster who shouldn’t be a counsellor because I needed to ‘loosen up’.”

“Ava…” Nora said gently.

“She said that she got why the kids call me ‘stick-up-the-butt Sharpe,” Ava said, swallowing a sudden, disturbing lump in her throat. She rolled her eyes. “That’s a weak insult anyway.”

“I didn’t know the campers were calling you that,” Nora said, reaching out to squeeze Ava’s hand.

Ava laughed humourlessly. “Yeah, neither did I. God, Nora, you’re the only reason I even made it through being a counsellor last summer. What the hell am I going to do?”

“I’ll tell you what you’re going to do,” Nora said firmly, turning Ava’s shoulders so they were facing each other. “You’re going to learn from last time. You’re going to remember everything we’ve talked about since the end of camp last year, and you’re going to show Sara Lance that you can be a damn good counsellor. Okay?”

Ava felt a hint of a smile flicker across her face. “Okay,” she said, in a small voice.

“Besides, you have until tomorrow before you have to actually _be_ a counsellor. For now, why don’t you and Joey go into the forest or something?”

“I’d miss dinner,” Ava protested weakly.

“I’ll save you some,” Nora promised. “Go. It’ll be good for you. I know you’ve missed him.”

She nudged Ava, who smiled for real this time. She really had.

“Joey,” Ava called out, as soon as she was within earshot.

The horse in question raised his head from where he’d been grazing in the paddock. His ears pricked, and he immediately broke out into a trot towards where Ava stood at the gate. Ava watched him approach with a grin, feeling at peace for the first time since she’d arrived at camp.

In a matter of seconds, Joey stood before her, his head hanging over the gate for Ava to make a fuss of him. She stroked her hand down his face, feeling the short, golden coat beneath her fingertips for the first time in over nine months.

“Did you miss me?” she asked quietly, ruffling his jet-black mane. The horse bumped his nose against Ava’s cheek. She wasn’t sure whether that was an affirmation, or an expression of impatience, but she took it nonetheless.

Clipping the leading rope she’d picked up from the ground by the gate onto Joey’s halter, she quickly unlatched the gate to let him out. She glanced up to make sure the other horses weren’t intent on escaping, but all twelve of them were still grazing quietly, completely uninterested in where their friend was going.

Ava closed the gate behind her and led Joey over to the hitching rail where the tack shed was located. They didn’t have an arena to ride in at Camp Lakewood; the rides Ava was in charge of leading were all out in the forest, but Ava preferred trail riding to schooling most of the time anyway. Riding was the one area of her life that she didn’t feel pressure to be perfect in, and out on the trail she felt like she was able to breathe easier than she usually could.

Ava wasn’t stupid; she knew she was a tense person. But this was what helped her relax, and she’d somehow managed to get a job teaching that to other people. If Ava was being honest with herself, _this_ was why she’d returned.

Once Joey had been tacked up, Ava swung herself up onto his back. Joey wasn’t particularly tall – his withers were only a little higher than Ava’s chin level – but he was strong and sturdy. Ava suspected that he could carry double her weight with ease. Even though he wasn’t as tall as some of the other horses Ava had grown up riding at various establishments around the country, he was still the tallest of the horses the camp had. The other twelve were varied in size, from little ponies for the tiniest campers, all the way to a couple that were just shy of Joey’s height for the taller kids. Taking out a maximum of eight at a time – eight being the maximum number of kids that were in a cabin – meant that none of the little ponies ever got ridden by a camper that was too big and heavy, which was something that Ava had been strict about with Rip from the start.

Clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth to get Joey moving, Ava settled into the saddle. Joey was as responsive as ever to her signals, both vocal and physical, and so she guided him down one of the camp’s many dirt paths – the one that led to the forest trail. It was a trail that Ava had become very familiar with last summer, but the destination she had in mind wasn’t on any of the routes that Rip had marked out.

Once Joey’s muscles had warmed up from the walk, Ava pushed him into a trot and then a canter, sitting tall in the saddle with a loose rein as the rhythm of Joey’s hooves hitting the ground eased her mind.

She didn’t care about what Sara Lance thought of her. She didn’t care that this cabin of kids would probably hate her just as much as her last cabin had. She didn’t care that, apart from Joey, Nora was her only friend at camp.

All Ava cared about was the summer breeze in her hair and the forest spread out before her.

* * *

“I can’t believe you two got assigned as co-counsellors _again_ ,” Sara complained good-naturedly. “It’s not fair that Z and I got split up and you didn’t.”

Sara knew that it was petty, but she was still more than a little annoyed about her own living situation for the next ten weeks.

“What can I say. Rip must love us,” Nate said, slinging his arm around Ray’s shoulders with a brilliant grin.

“Either that, or he knows you’d both start crying if you were separated,” Zari commented wryly.

“Maybe a little bit,” Nate conceded.

“Who are you guys with, then, if not each other?” Ray asked.

The four of them were huddled in the Ash counsellors’ cabin, waiting for the last member of their friendship group to arrive. Mick was always late, but he never missed dinner. Ray and Nate had unpacked already, making themselves at home in ‘the bro cabin’.

“New girl called Mona,” Zari said. “She seems nice. Very talkative.”

“Do you think she’ll be good with the kids?” Ray asked.

“Probably. If she doesn’t mind joining in on the midnight feasts, I think they’ll like her just fine,” Zari said.

“I think you’ll have better luck than me,” Sara said. “I’ve got Ava Sharpe.”

Nate grimaced nervously. “She’s the scary one, right?”

“She’s not that bad,” Ray said. Sara looked at him in surprise.

“Excuse me?”

“Well, according to Nora, she’s nice. Just… guarded,” Ray said with a shrug.

“Been talking to Nora a lot, have we?” Sara asked.

Ray looked like a deer caught in the headlights. “Maybe. What does it matter?”

“You totally have a crush on her,” Zari grinned, leaning forwards from where she was sat on Nate’s bed to point a teasing finger at Ray. “You have a crush on Nora Darhk.”

“I do not!” Ray said, convincing exactly nobody.

Sara shook her head with a smile. “Oh, Raymond. You sweet, innocent little flower.”

“I don’t have a crush on Nora Darhk,” Ray insisted.

“You’re a terrible liar, buddy,” Nate told him.

Ray glared at him. “And you’re meant to have my back.”

Nate laughed. Sara could only assume it was because Ray was the least threatening person any of them knew, and so even his best glare had no heat to it. She checked her watch, seeing that it was almost time for them to grab dinner in the mess hall.

“Looks like Mick will have to meet us on the way there,” she said, tapping the face of her watch to get the attention of the others. “He’s been my friend for over ten years, but there’s no way I’m missing out on dinner because of him.”

After dinner, Sara went back to the Oak counsellors’ cabin. She was determined to get a good night’s sleep tonight; she knew from experience that sleep was something she would be short of during the course of the summer.

The cabin was empty when she got back. It wasn’t dark yet, but Sara flipped on the lights anyway. She wondered where Ava was. Thinking back, she hadn’t seen her at dinner earlier; in fact, she hadn’t seen Ava since she’d left her in this very cabin hours ago.

She couldn’t be in the lake – there were no campers to push her in it again yet. Sara chuckled under her breath, and then stopped abruptly as a flash of guilt went through her. Frowning at the sensation, Sara started to make up her bed for the night. Why did she feel bad?

Yeah, the prank had been a little mean-spirited, but it had also been pretty hilarious. Nora had pulled her out quick enough, Ava hadn’t caught pneumonia or anything, and it had been the kids’ revenge for all the military-style drills Ava had tried to make them do.

So why did Sara’s insides twist uncomfortably whenever she thought about it?

Pushing thoughts of Ava from her mind as she finished making her bed, Sara took her book out of her backpack. She sat cross-legged on her sheets, and began to read, knowing there was no point trying to get service on her cell. She wondered how Mick (who had turned up eventually) was doing with his co-counsellor, whoever the unlucky guy turned out to be.

Sara read for a couple of hours, and the sky was just starting to dim when the door opened and Ava walked in. Sara felt a momentary spike of relief, which was quickly followed by a feeling of annoyance that she had even been slightly worried in the first place.

“Too good for the rest of us?” Sara asked casually, eyes on her book.

“Excuse me?”

“You weren’t at dinner,” Sara shrugged. “Do you not need food to survive?”

She heard Ava sigh, and the urge to needle at her more took over.

“Oh my God, that’s it,” Sara smirked, looking up from her book to see Ava glaring at her. “You’re a robot!”

“I’m not a robot, dumbass,” Ava said.

“But it would explain why you wouldn’t go near the lake after you got pushed in,” Sara continued, and Ava clenched her jaw. “The water fried your circuits, didn’t it?”

“That’s not why—” Ava cut herself off. “Why am I even explaining myself? It’s like talking to a brick wall. An idiotic, extremely annoying brick wall.”

“Good one,” Sara said. “That hurt me deep where my feelings are supposed to be.”

Ava scoffed. “And how did you even notice I stayed away from the lake after what happened? Stalker, much?”

“Please,” Sara snorted, prickling at the accusation. “It wasn’t hard to spot. It’s just water, Sharpe.”

Ava gave her a hard look, her eyes boring into Sara’s for a long moment before she evidently decided that this – whatever _this_ meant – wasn’t worth it.

“Whatever,” Ava muttered, crossing over to her drawers. She took some pyjamas out and spun to face Sara again. “I’m going to go and get changed, and then I’m going to go to sleep. If the queen permits it, of course.”

“Be my guest,” Sara said, snapping her book shut with a flourish. “The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner I don’t have to deal with you.”

And maybe she was being an asshole, but Sara was frustrated. She was missing her sister even though it had only been a few hours since she’d last seen her, she was missing being co-counsellors with Zari, she was dreading how the actual counselling part of her job was going to go with Ava come tomorrow when the kids arrived. So, maybe it was wrong to be arguing with Ava over literally nothing, but Sara didn’t particularly care.

Or at least she told herself she didn’t, as she watched Ava’s frown falter for just a split-second at her words. She recovered quickly, schooling her features into a neutral expression as she left for the toilet blocks, pyjamas and toothbrush in hand.

Sara exhaled, quickly getting changed into her own pyjamas. She resolved to go brush her teeth later, once Ava had fallen asleep and was no longer doing the talking thing with her mouth that stirred up such a whirlwind of emotions within her.

Opening her book again, but not really making any progress in it this time, Sara stewed in her frustration. This was only night one of ten weeks of cohabitation with Ava Sharpe. If this moment now was any indication, Sara was in for a very long camp.

* * *

When Ray arrived at breakfast the next morning, he could see from a mile away that Sara was in a bad mood. He nudged Nate as they walked over to where the food was being served, trying to subtly warn him about the rant that was surely about to come their way once they sat down.

He and Nate were usually the only people in their friendship group who were at breakfast at this time. Ray had always been an early riser, and Nate had long ago gotten used to waking up at the same time as him, so they always went to the mess hall for breakfast together. Mick and Zari were both late risers, so Ray wouldn’t be expecting them until about five minutes before they stopped serving breakfast. Truth be told, he was a little surprised to see Sara already sat at their usual table, stabbing her scrambled eggs more forcefully than was strictly necessary. Sara liked to take her time in the mornings, most days going on a jog in the forest before breakfast. She’d broken that tradition last year rooming with Zari, coming into the mess hall late after having been up most of the night having midnight feasts and the like.

Sara’s hair was completely dry, so Ray guessed she hadn’t been for a run or the subsequent shower just yet, if she was even planning on going at all. He took some oatmeal from the counter, and poured himself a cup of coffee. Nate took the butter packets away from him with an eye roll, sensing Ray’s next move.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “Keep this out of your coffee, that’s just weird.”

“But—”

“Nope,” Nate cut him off. “You’re banned from explaining the health benefits, remember?”

Ray sighed, admitting defeat. He and Nate made their way over to sit down opposite Sara, who gave them a tight smile.

“How was the first night?” Ray asked. They might as well get the rant over with as soon as possible.

Sara gritted her teeth. “Ava Sharpe is a nightmare. And she stole my idea.”

“What idea?” Nate asked.

“Going for a run before breakfast,” Sara said. “That’s my thing, but when her alarm clock woke me up this morning, she picked up her workout clothes, said she was going for a run, and just left. The worst part is I couldn’t even get back to sleep afterwards.”

Ray grimaced.

“Who even has an alarm clock nowadays?” Sara carried on. “Why can’t she just use her phone like a normal person?”

“Where is she now?” Ray asked.

Sara shrugged. “Probably still running. Or maybe she’s skipping out on breakfast. She wasn’t at dinner last night.”

“Why?” Nate asked with a frown.

“Beats me,” Sara said. “I asked her about it but she didn’t exactly give me a straight answer. God, this summer is going to be awful.”

“Hey,” Ray said, as firmly as he dared. “Ava went through a lot last year, remember? Maybe she’s scared of it all happening again.”

“Whose side are you on?” Sara asked incredulously.

“Guys,” Nate said warningly, but Ray barely heard him. It was strange, but after everything Nora had told him about Ava, he felt a strange urge to stand up for her.

“I’m not on anyone’s side,” Ray explained. “I’m just saying that maybe you should cut her some slack and see if that improves things. You’re going to have to be co-counsellors for the whole summer, after all.”

“Don’t remind me,” Sara wrinkled her nose. “And we’ve all been through a lot, by the way. So Ava got pushed into the lake… big deal!”

“You don’t mean that,” Ray said. He knew Sara, and he knew that this was her frustration talking.

“It was funny,” Sara defended. “Besides, Nora pulled her out, it’s not like she got hurt or anything!”

“Guys,” Nate repeated, more forcefully this time.

Ray glanced at him, seeing him nod to somewhere over Sara’s shoulder. Ray looked to where Nate was indicating and his heart sank as he saw Ava, hair still dripping from the shower, standing frozen in the doorway. He had no idea how long she’d been standing there, but she’d clearly heard plenty.

Sara glanced over her shoulder just as Ava spun on her heel and strode out of the mess hall, turning back to face Ray and Nate as she screwed her eyes shut with a sigh.

“ _Shit_.”

“You should probably go after her,” Ray said. Nora hadn’t told him everything, but Ray had sensed that there was a bigger deal to the whole lake thing than anyone suspected.

“I know,” Sara said, standing up and letting her knife clatter back down to the plate. “Why can’t anything go right for once?”

And with that, she jogged after where Ava had disappeared. Ray exchanged a look with Nate, who shrugged. He had a feeling that Sara and Ava were going to be a handful this summer.

* * *

“Wait!”

Ava heard Sara call out to her as she marched down the path back towards their cabin. She didn’t want to stop, didn’t want to hear what Sara had to say for herself. She was just done with it all, and the campers hadn’t even arrived yet. Sara Lance didn’t know what the hell she was talking about, anyway.

“Stop!” Sara’s voice was closer now, and Ava could hear footsteps at the speed of a run. She kept walking.

Before she knew it, Sara had overtaken her, and spun back around to face her. Ava ground to a halt, setting her jaw as she resolutely looked over Sara’s head.

“Get out of my way,” she said quietly.

“Look, I’m trying to apologise,” Sara said, like it pained her to even say the words, and Ava rolled her eyes. “What I said was uncalled for.”

“And what part of everything you’ve said to me over the past day would you be referring to?” Ava asked, unable to help herself.

Sara bristled visibly. “Hey, you said some shit to me, too.”

“Do all of your apologies go this poorly?” Ava asked.

Sara glared at her. “I don’t know what your problem is, but I’ve got better things to do than stand around and try to work out what your whole lake issue is about, alright?”

“Does there need to be an issue?” Ava asked angrily. “Can’t I just be upset that a bunch of kids thought it would be funny to push me into the lake in the middle of the night? Clearly, everyone else thought it was hilarious.”

“There’s got to be more to it than that,” Sara scoffed, and Ava hated how easily she could see through her. “No, you’re not telling me everything.”

“I wasn’t aware I had to.”

“You don’t,” Sara shrugged, and Ava blinked in surprise. “But I’m not a mind-reader. So don’t pin your baggage on me just because I don’t know what’s going on in your head.”

“As long as you stop being an asshole,” Ava said. She had no idea why Sara was capable of pushing her buttons like this, but she really didn’t like it.

“Only if you do,” Sara folded her arms, and it was in that moment that Ava realised that they were both as petty as each other, even if Sara was better at voicing her pettiness.

“For the sake of the kids,” Ava sighed, the fight draining out of her, “I will give you the benefit of the doubt. If you do the same.”

Sara narrowed her eyes at Ava, scanning her face for something Ava wasn’t aware of. “Fine,” she said eventually. “For the kids.”

Ava didn’t know quite what had just happened, or how it had happened. All she knew was that she and Sara had gone from being at each other’s throats to drawing up an incredibly tentative truce in the span of one short conversation. It left her a little dizzy.

They stood there, a little awkwardly, until they were saved by Rip’s yell that the first of the campers were arriving.

“We should…” Ava jerked a thumb over her shoulder, back to the House. Sara nodded, and they both hurried back along the path.

Rip gave them all a clipboard with the names of the kids that would be in each cabin, and pretty much left them to it.

It was a whirlwind of activity; counsellors cornering kids as they got out of their parents’ cars and asking for their names so that they could determine where to send them. Ava hung back somewhat, hating that she was still wary of the campers. They were just kids, after all.

One of the girls that had been instrumental in the lake plot caught her eye and smirked, and Ava’s nails dug into the palm of her hand. Okay, so some of them were evil kids.

Sara was right in the thick of it, high-fiving the kids she recognised and greeting the new faces with practiced ease. It really wasn’t fair how well she got on with them, Ava thought, although it was no doubt due in part to Sara’s many years as a camper here herself. She may not know that much about Sara and her friends, but she at least was aware that most of them had been practically running this camp since they were children.

She saw Sara crouched down next to a girl that looked to be about nine years old, pointing in Ava’s direction as she seemingly gave her some instructions. The girl’s father nodded at the same time as his daughter and placed a hand on her shoulder to help steer her through the crowd towards Ava.

Ava stood up straighter, drumming her fingers on her clipboard nervously as she mentally sized up the approaching kid. She didn’t recognise her from last year, so she assumed that either she’d missed out on camp during Ava’s first year, or she was new.

“Hi,” she addressed the girl’s father. “How can I help you?”

“You’re Ava, right?” the man asked. “Your co-counsellor sent us your way, she said you could take Poppy to her cabin.”

“Of course, right this way,” Ava said, slipping almost effortlessly into professionalism. Adults she could deal with.

Poppy’s father adjusted his grip on the large purple suitcase he was holding and encouraged his daughter to follow Ava down the increasingly-familiar path towards the Oak cabin. Ava didn’t say anything while they walked; Poppy and her father were chatting away to each other animatedly and she didn’t want to intrude.

Eventually, they reached the larger of the two Oak cabins meant for the kids. Ava pushed the door open, allowing her two companions through into the space before she followed them. Poppy looked around in awe.

“Welcome to the Oak cabin,” Ava said, only a little stiffly. “As your counsellors, Sara and I will be right next door to you, so don’t hesitate to ask us if you need anything. So far, you’re the first camper to arrive in the cabin, but I’m sure the rest of them will be arriving shortly.”

“She just couldn’t wait to get here,” Poppy’s father informed her. “We ended up setting off quite early.”

He looked at his daughter fondly, who was rushing back and forth across the room, examining every inch of it. She turned to Ava excitedly.

“Does that mean I have first pick of the beds?” she asked. Ava thought about the chart she had quickly drawn up at the beginning of last summer, putting each camper in a specific place according to alphabetical order. It had been met with a mixture of outrage and disdain.

“I suppose so,” she said, and Poppy lit up.

She stopped by each of the six beds in the room, evidently deciding which was the optimal one. Ava was pretty sure all the beds were exactly the same, but Poppy appeared to believe otherwise. In time, she selected a bed near one of the windows, and sat on it decisively.

“I believe the princess has spoken,” Poppy’s dad grinned, wheeling her suitcase over to the chest of drawers in between Poppy’s bed and another.

“She gets two of the four drawers,” Ava explained. “The other two drawers will be occupied by whoever takes the bed next to hers.”

Poppy leapt up from the bed and started to help her dad unpack the contents of her suitcase. This included a stuffed bunny toy, which Poppy pulled out of the suitcase carefully, hugging it to her chest as she once again surveyed the room, a little less enthusiastic now.

“You okay, honey?” her dad asked, and Ava tried not to listen in as Poppy suddenly turned uncertain.

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s just… ten weeks is a long time.”

Poppy’s dad smiled comfortingly. “It’ll fly by.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. Isn’t that right, Ava?” Poppy’s dad turned to her.

“I—” Ava hesitated, looking at the young girl’s apprehensive expression at the prospect of being away from her family. “Yes. It will.”

Poppy nodded slowly, looking a bit more relaxed as she held onto the bunny tightly. Poppy’s father sighed in relief, coming over to stand by Ava.

“It’s her first time away from home,” he explained quietly, as he watched his daughter pull a couple of brightly coloured books out of the suitcase. “She was the one who asked to come here, but I expect there’ll be tears when I have to go.”

Ava tried not to blanche at the mention of crying children. _That_ was something she was decidedly not equipped to deal with. She could barely deal with herself when she was upset, and now she was expected to know how to cheer up a potentially upset child in the near future. None of the kids in her cabin last year had cried, that she was aware of.

She was saved from having to say anything in a feeble attempt to reassure Poppy’s father that his daughter would be in good hands by Sara dramatically throwing the door open, two girls and their families in tow.

“Welcome to the Oak cabin!” Sara announced, sweeping her arm around to show off the admittedly modest room. “Now pick a bed and we can get chatting about the awesome summer you guys are about to have.”

Sara grinned as the girls squealed excitedly, sidestepping out of the way as both kids charged for the same bed. Both sets of parents sent each other an amused look; Ava guessed the families knew each other well.

“When are the archery lessons?” one of the girls asked eagerly.

“The first one’s tomorrow morning, but I’m not sure when Oak’s slot is yet,” Sara told her, and the girl groaned exaggeratedly. “Hey now, Taylor. I promised to teach you how to hit a bullseye this year, right?”

The girl, Taylor, nodded.

“And I will. But I don’t control the schedules. Maybe if you ask Rip nicely, he might give the Oak cabin dibs on the first slot,” Sara suggested, and Taylor exchanged an excited look with her friend.

“Okay,” she said. “Where is he now?”

Sara laughed. “Woah, slow down. He’ll be at lunch, you can ask him then if you like.”

Taylor nodded, deadly serious, like she was already formulating a plan. Ava wasn’t sure if she liked that or not. Either way, it was still odd to see Sara like this – so enthusiastic and not at all sarcastic. Ava stood there, hands clasped behind her back, not quite sure what to do with herself. This whole… bonding with kids thing didn’t exactly come naturally to her.

As much as it pained her to admit it, Sara was proving to be really good with the kids.

Furious at the thought, Ava didn’t realise she’d been outwardly scowling until Sara cleared her throat loudly. She raised an eyebrow at Ava.

“Is there something on your mind, co-counsellor of mine?”

“I’m not anything of yours,” Ava snapped, before glancing at the kids and their parents as a blush spread across her cheeks. She didn’t need to be fighting with Sara in front of everyone. “And no, everything’s fine.”

Sara gave her an unimpressed look; one that said she didn’t believe her at all. “Maybe you should go back to the parking lot and see if any more of our campers have arrived.”

“Sure,” Ava muttered. Sara gave her a warning look, reminding her of their deal, and Ava sighed before injecting some enthusiasm into her voice. “I’ll go do that.”

She strode out of the cabin without so much as a second glance, blowing out a breath as she walked back towards the chaos of the parking lot. It was only day one, but Ava already had a feeling that this year was going to be just as bad as the last one had been.

* * *

Zari was in the middle of handing off a kid and her mother to Mona to take over to the Cedar cabin when she saw her.

Dark hair, sunglasses, and wearing ripped jeans instead of the standard khakis with her blue counsellor shirt, the young woman was strolling through the crowd without a care in the world. Zari saw her completely blank a frazzled dad trying to ask her a question while his two sons started to play-fight – she just walked straight past him.

Zari didn’t recognise her. She must be one of the new counsellors Rip had hired for this summer. Clearly, she didn’t yet know anything about the job. From the little she’d just seen, Zari was pretty sure that this woman had never been to a summer camp in her life.

Her feet moving swiftly to intercept the stranger, Zari cut her off just as she was about to walk off down the path.

“Hi, excuse me,” she said. The woman tried to side-step her, but Zari blocked her path again.

“What?” she asked, and Zari was somewhat surprised to hear her speak with a slightly rough British accent.

“You’re a counsellor, right?” Zari looked pointedly at the woman’s shirt.

“Says so, doesn’t it?” the woman grinned, taking off her sunglasses to reveal dark eyes that held too much mischief for Zari’s immediate liking. She didn’t know who this woman was, but she sure didn’t trust her thus far.

“I didn’t catch your name,” Zari said.

The woman smirked at her, sidestepping around Zari with a twirl and replacing her sunglasses with a flourish.

“I didn’t throw it.”

And with that, she gave Zari a cheery wave as she disappeared off towards the House, no doubt on her way to ruin Rip’s day. Zari huffed, gripping her clipboard tighter than necessary. A few years ago, she would’ve been intrigued by someone like that, but she’d since grown out of her interest in rude, mysterious types.

“Ugh, she did not just make that reference,” a voice came from Zari’s side, and she turned to see Nora walking up to her with a disdainful look on her face. Ray, of course, was close by; the three of them watching the woman skip up the steps of the house.

“What reference?” Zari asked.

“Well—” Ray began, ready to launch into a full explanation, but Nora shook her head.

“I’m afraid we’ve got bigger problems,” she said. “Because if her name is Charlie, then she’s my new co-counsellor.”

* * *

“I’m sure you could talk to Rip. Maybe he can arrange a trade.”

Ray sat on his bed, Nora pacing back and forth in front of him. She sighed, running a hand through her hair, frustrated.

“No, because then someone else will just get stuck with her,” Nora said.

As much as she really didn’t want this clear troublemaker as her co-counsellor, she didn’t want to pass on that trouble to anyone else. She could handle it. Probably.

“Oh God, we’re in charge of a six to eight year old cabin,” Nora groaned. “What possessed Rip to think _that_ was a good idea?”

“Maybe she’ll surprise you,” Ray reasoned. “Maybe she’s actually very responsible.”

Nora just looked at him, pausing momentarily in her pacing. “You don’t actually believe that, do you? Ray, she didn’t turn up yesterday, and when she finally arrived she wasn’t even in her proper uniform. Zari said she saw her completely ignore one of the parents asking for her help, too. She’s not exactly off to a great start.”

Ray sighed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I think I was just trying to be optimistic.”

“I know,” Nora said softly. “Your reckless optimism is one of the things I love most about you.”

Ray grinned brilliantly, and Nora realised what she’d just said. The air rushed from her body, and she could feel her face burning already. Shutting down any and all feelings she may or may not be starting to experience, Nora cleared her throat and started walking again. She absolutely could not afford to think of Ray like that.

Even if he was the single kindest person she had ever met in her life.

“I just don’t see how this whole Charlie situation is going to end up being anything other than a certified disaster,” Nora said, after a somewhat awkward pause. “What if, on top of all we’ve seen so far, she’s terrible with the kids? What if she sets a bad example for them?”

“Then you’ll just have to set a better example,” Ray said. “They’re impressionable at this age, so if you can show them the benefits of teamwork and responsibility and the like, then they’ll listen to you.”

“Are you sure?” Nora asked, wringing her hands. “I’m not that great with them, and the kids I was with last year were older and—”

“Nora, you’ll be just fine,” Ray reassured her, reaching out to lightly grab her wrist as she walked by.

Nora froze, feeling sparks shoot up her arm at the contact. Ray dropped his hand from her, evidently having felt her tense up, and she wanted to reassure him that it hadn’t been a bad freezing up; far from it, in fact.

“You’re much better with the kids than you think,” Ray said quietly.

Nora smiled gently, feeling herself start to relax. She could do this. Ray believed in her. So did Ava; she had reassured her enough over the off-season that she’d done a great job last summer with their unruly cabin.

Even if Ava’s compliments had come at the expense of putting herself down at the same time. Nora was determined to change that.

If Ava could bond with the campers this time, then Nora had no doubt that she’d be a great counsellor. She was already an excellent riding instructor. It was like when she was with animals, she was fine, she knew how to communicate. It was just when Ava tried to relate to other humans that things usually went wrong.

Like with Sara, and Ava’s first impression of her.

After Ava’s run this morning, but before she had gone for her shower, Ava had knocked on her cabin door and told Nora all about her and Sara’s latest argument. Something about the lake, and Sara thinking she was a robot.

Ava had apparently considered telling Sara the truth behind why the prank had messed with her like it had, but then had thought better of it. She’d said that Sara didn’t have a right to know, that she would only make fun of her even more. So she’d kept quiet.

Nora knew enough from talking to Ray that Sara wasn’t a bad person – just prickly sometimes. And stubborn. A lot like Ava, in fact. So, she knew deep down that they could get along if they just worked together instead of insisting on butting heads and insulting one another at every opportunity. She just wondered how long it would take.

Pushing her worries about Sara and Ava to the back of her mind in order to make way for her worries about her own cabin, Nora reached out blindly for Ray. She couldn’t help it. Her hand ended up gripping his shoulder as she took a steadying breath.

“I can do this,” she said, mostly to herself. Ray smiled encouragingly. “The kids will listen to me. They’ll listen to me, right?”

“They will,” Ray assured her.

“Okay,” Nora said. “Right, we should probably get back out there. We’ve got campers to greet, after all.”


	2. i'm not going (cause i've been waiting for a miracle)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys!
> 
> first of all, thank you for the response to the first chapter, it only solidified my want to go ahead and write the whole fic!
> 
> so, here's chapter two!
> 
> just a heads up, i can't guarantee a weekly or even a regular upload - i work several 6am shifts a week and sometimes i just don't feel like writing when i get home - but i will be posting hopefully 10k chapters to try and make it worth the wait :)
> 
> chapter title from "miracle" by paramore

Once all six members of the Oak cabin had been accounted for, Ava having just returned with the final one, it was time Sara to begin the proper introductions. She always loved this part – the excitement of having the whole summer ahead.

“How about we all go around the room and introduce ourselves?” Sara suggested. “And tell one secret that nobody knows about us.”

She leaned down conspiratorially, glancing up to see Ava folding her arms with an unimpressed look on her face, like she thought Sara was going to try and force the truth about the lake (whatever it was) out of her.

But Sara had meant it when she said that Ava didn’t have to tell her. Sure, she was dying to know, but she wasn’t _that_ much of an asshole to make her spill. Although clearly Ava thought she _was_ that much of an asshole, and based upon their interactions so far, Sara didn’t exactly blame her.

The more she thought about it, the guiltier she felt about how their conversations had gone up until this point. It wasn’t like Ava hadn’t returned in kind, of course, but Sara still felt bad. Maybe it was time to at least try and extend an olive branch, if only for the sake of having a not-miserable summer.

And maybe that started now, with Sara doing her best to include a clearly uncomfortable Ava in a group bonding activity.

“I’ll go first,” Sara volunteered. “Okay, my name is Sara and I have a huge stash of chocolate in my room ready for all the midnight feasts we’re going to have!”

Some of the girls cheered, and Sara grinned. She knew she was good at getting along with the kids without bribery, but the promise of food never hurt. She looked up to see Ava’s reaction and saw her shaking her head slightly, like she wanted to point out how unhealthy chocolate and a lack of sleep were.

Sara raised an eyebrow, daring her to say something, but Ava remained silent. Sara expected she’d be hearing plenty about it tonight, though.

“I’m Taylor. I’m ten, and I had my first kiss last summer. But you can’t tell my dad,” Taylor announced. Bold confession, Sara thought.

Taylor’s best friend, Georgie, gasped. “Who did you kiss?”

“Josh Hartley,” Taylor whispered loudly, and Georgie’s eyes went wide. “I know, right?”

“Wow,” Georgie said. “Did you sneak out to kiss him?”

“Excellent secret, Taylor,” Sara said, cutting off her answer, because Ava appeared to be one second away from having an aneurysm at the prospect of kids sneaking off to meet up and have their first kiss. “Who’s next?”

One by one, they went around the room, until Ava and Poppy were the only people left. Poppy looked at the group nervously, inching closer to where Ava was standing. Ava appeared not to notice, but Sara did, making a mental note. If Poppy was naturally gravitating towards Ava for comfort, then maybe it would help both of them settle in the long run. She didn’t know Poppy, but she seemed like she might need a bit of extra support from her and Ava, at least to begin with. Sara nodded encouragingly at the girl and Poppy took a deep breath, holding her stuffed rabbit close to her chest.

“I’m Poppy,” she said quietly. “I’m nine, and I’ve, um, never been to summer camp before.”

As far as secrets went, it was weak, but Sara smiled at her anyway.

“Well, I promise you that you’re going to have an amazing time here,” she said confidently. “Right, girls?”

The other campers all grinned, having experienced at least one summer at Camp Lakewood before. Poppy was the only new camper in the cabin, and Sara guessed that probably wasn’t helping any anxieties she had.

Sara looked expectantly at Ava, who sent her a look that said _do I really have to do this?_ Sara folded her arms and raised her eyebrows, and Ava sighed.

“I’m Ava, I’m one of your counsellors,” she started, a little awkward. “It’s only my second time at a summer camp.”

“What?” Sara asked, the question slipping out before she could stop herself.

Ava looked at her in surprise, clearly not expecting Sara to have taken interest. “I never went to camp as a kid. Last summer as a counsellor was my first experience of it all.”

“Why did you come back?” Sara asked, puzzled. By all accounts, Ava had had a pretty dismal summer.

“Trying to get rid of me already, Lance?” Ava narrowed her eyes. Sara realised how her question had sounded and backpedalled.

“No, it’s just…” Sara trailed off. She didn’t really want to bring up last year’s prank in front of all the kids. “What was it about this place that made you decide to come back again?”

“Oh,” Ava said. “Well, it was… um, Nora who convinced me, mostly.”

“Nora?”

“Yeah, we didn’t exactly get along at first but after—” Ava cut herself off, glancing around at the kids, who were all listening with interest. “After everything, she started helping me to be less, well…”

“Stuck-up?” Sara asked, wincing internally when she reminded herself of the whole ‘stick-up-the-butt Sharpe’ comment she’d made yesterday.

“Something like that,” Ava said. She sounded slightly suspicious, almost as if she couldn’t understand why Sara wasn’t expressing her desire for Ava to have never come back.

Sara cleared her throat, turning her attention back to the campers. “Well, I think it’s definitely lunch time, don’t you?”

Taylor and Georgie whooped, making a beeline for the door. The rest of the girls followed, and before Sara knew it, the cabin was empty but for her and Ava. She exhaled, puffing out her cheeks. Phase one of the cabin bonding had gone pretty well, in her opinion.

“Do they always stampede like that?” Ava asked.

“If you let them,” Sara shrugged. “Why, did you try and make your kids march last year?”

There was no bite to it this time, Sara deciding that she should probably make an effort to be less hostile even when the kids weren’t around. Ava still scowled at her, but she seemed less angry than she had this morning. Maybe they were making progress, after all.

“One time,” Ava said. “I tried to make them march _one time_.”

Sara couldn’t help the laugh that escaped. “Well that explains a lot. This isn’t bootcamp, Sharpe, remember that. These are free-range children.”

“A little too free-range if you ask me,” Ava said pointedly, and Sara rolled her eyes.

“Come on,” she said, heading towards the door. “I think you’re getting hangry now.”

“You’re very annoying, do you know that?” Ava grumbled, following her out the door anyway. “And don’t think I’ve forgotten about the stash of chocolate. We’ll be having words about that later.”

“When did you turn into my wife?” Sara huffed, mostly to herself, but Ava had clearly heard her if the indignant choking sound she made was any indication.

“Please, like anyone would marry you,” she said, and Sara actually laughed. Her insults were still weak as hell, but maybe there was potential for Ava to evolve into someone Sara could actually stand to spend time with. And given the amount of time they’d have to spend together, that would definitely be a bonus.

* * *

Once Nora had actually managed to get her kids to settle for lunch, her attention turned to where Charlie was lounging at a table. So far, she hadn’t attempted to help at all, which Nora was actually pretty relieved about. The girls in her cabin, aged from six to eight, were a handful, and she didn’t need to be dealing with Charlie on top of that.

Once the campers were tucking into their food and chattering away excitedly, Nora made her way over to her co-counsellor. She still had her sunglasses on, for a reason Nora was becoming increasingly sure was hangover-related rather than sun-related.

“Alright, love?” Charlie asked, peering over the top of the sunglasses as Nora approached. “Wait, you’re my co-counsellor, right?”

“I am. Nora Darhk,” she confirmed, halting in front of where Charlie was sat. Nora debated internally for a moment before taking a seat next to her. She’d made the mistake of getting off on the wrong foot with Ava last year and she didn’t want to make the same mistake with Charlie – even if she appeared to be the complete opposite of what Ava had been personality-wise.

Charlie surveyed the room distastefully. “Which ones are ours, then?”

Nora just about refrained from rolling her eyes. “They’re at that table, over there,” she said, pointing out the table she’d managed to get all eight girls to sit at. Half of them were yelling about all the things they were going to do at camp this summer, and the other half of them looked to be close to tears at the prospect of being away from their parents for so long.

Charlie hummed thoughtfully. “They’ve got potential, I suppose.”

“Potential for what?” Nora asked. She immediately regretted the question when Charlie grinned impishly at her.

“Potential to make this summer way more entertaining than I thought it would be!”

Not wanting to ask Charlie to clarify further, because Nora was sure that the woman sitting in front of her was the very definition of ‘chaotic evil’, Nora smiled tightly and gestured to the table.

“I’m going to go keep an eye on them,” she said. “But we should get to know them this afternoon. Maybe take them on a tour around the camp so the new ones, and you, can see where everything is.”

“Do what you want,” Charlie shrugged. “I can find my way around myself. I _am_ the hiking leader, after all.”

Nora blanched. Of all the things, Charlie was in charge of _hiking_?

“Well, that’s a disaster waiting to happen,” Ava commented, Nora having seized her by the arm towards the end of lunch and told her what Charlie’s job was. “What if she just goes off into the woods and doesn’t come back?”

Nora bit her lip. “Why Rip trusts her to lead a group of kids on a walk I’ll never know, but I don’t even trust her not to be a bad influence on the girls in our cabin.”

Ava hummed thoughtfully. “Well maybe if she wants to keep her distance, you should let her. Like I did towards the end of last year. It all worked out for the best.”

Nora softened, nudging Ava’s shoulder with her own. “Only cause those kids were mean. Please don’t tell me you’re already pulling away this time.”

“I’m trying not to,” Ava said. “Sara has all these group bonding ideas that make it pretty much impossible anyway.”

Ava rolled her eyes, but Nora knew Ava well, and she got the slight impression that Ava didn’t mind the group bonding as much as she pretended.

“What are the kids in your cabin like?” she asked.

“They’re… okay, so far,” Ava said. “As much as I hate to say it, most of them already love Sara from previous years so it makes it a bit easier.”

“Yeah, well, Sara’s pretty popular around here,” Nora laughed. “She’s apparently spent about half her summers here one way or another.”

“Doesn’t hurt that she’s the archery instructor, I suppose,” Ava added. “It’s regarded as one of the cooler activities.”

“Hey, so is horse riding,” Nora said, seeing where Ava was going with this and refusing to let her put herself down.

“Half the kids are scared of the horses, and the other half just want to gallop off and get mad when I say they can’t do that, plus the majority of them make fun of me because apparently I’m ‘that horse girl’,” Ava said dryly. “When Sara tells the kids not to point the bows at each other they listen, but when it’s _my_ safety rules…”

“Fresh start this year,” Nora reminded her. “No negativity allowed.”

“But—”

Nora raised her eyebrows, and Ava sighed.

“Fine. I’ll give it a shot.”

“There it is,” Nora smiled. She’d learned a lot about Ava over the past several months, and one of the things she’d discovered was that Ava needed to be redirected before she could really be allowed into a downwards spiral, otherwise all she managed to do was make herself miserable. “What have you and Sara got planned for the cabin this afternoon?”

Ava shrugged. “You’d have to ask Sara. I made sure not to plan anything this year, in case it landed me in cold water.”

She smiled wryly, and Nora shook her head fondly. At least Ava was starting to be able to joke about the whole ordeal with her now, although it had taken a while to get to that point. Nora was sure that she wouldn’t joke about it with anyone else. In fact, Nora was pretty certain that Ava didn’t _have_ anyone else to joke around with, period.

“Okay, well, just keep in mind that these kids aren’t the same as our cabin last year,” Nora said, squeezing Ava’s arm before letting go. “You’ll be fine.”

Ava nodded, more to herself than anyone else. “I’ll be fine.”

* * *

“Okay, fellas!” Ray clapped his hands together, getting the attention of the eight boys in the cabin, all of whom were currently jostling for space in the drawers. “Who wants to go see the lake?”

There was a chorus of moderate enthusiasm from the boys, and Ray exchanged a delighted look with Nate. Both of them were in charge of lake-related activities, after all, so the lake was where they spent a lot of their time.

He and Nate led the campers down the path from the Ash cabin to the lake. It wasn’t far to walk, and Ray took them down to the end of the jetty. Most of the boys had spent at least one summer here before, and so were used to seeing the lake spread out before them, but there were a couple of new campers in their cabin who hadn’t seen it before.

The lake was oval-shaped; clear, deep water about two hundred feet across to the opposite shore. The lake stretched further out to either side of the jetty, about a hundred and fifty feet both left and right. It was a decent size; big enough for the water-skiing and other activities that were taught here, and big enough that swimming was only allowed in certain, shallower areas of the lake – the areas closest to Ray’s lifeguard position.

Being the lifeguard was one of Ray’s two jobs at camp – he’d also been teaching classes on wilderness survival since the age of seventeen. Lifeguarding was something he’d more or less volunteered for, getting his training in the off-season just because it had seemed like a useful skill to have in case any of his friends were ever in danger. He vividly remembered a time when they were fourteen that Mick had ducked Nate under the surface for a bit too long, and he’d swallowed a lot of water. Ray had given him CPR which he’d learned from one of the counsellors earlier in the summer, and Nate had been fine – brushing off the incident with little worry, in true Nate fashion – but ever since then, Ray had been hyper-aware of the importance of lake safety.

After classes each day were over and before dinner, there was a free hour where the campers could do pretty much anything they wanted within the confines of the camp, including swimming in the shallower parts of the lake. The older kids were allowed further away from the shore, but still well within sight, and close enough that Ray could get to them quickly if they appeared to be in any distress.

“Can we jump in?” one of the boys asked.

“Not just yet,” Ray said. “But you can later if you want. Just be careful if you’re jumping off the jetty.”

“Yeah, and there’s consequences if you break the rules, you hear?” Nate said, as stern as Nate Heywood could be. “So no sneaking out for a midnight swim.”

The same boy pulled a face, and Ray assumed that he’d been planning to do exactly that at some point during the summer. He exchanged a look with Nate, who nodded slightly. Ray knew that they’d both be keeping an eye on him, just in case.

Ray checked his watch. Three o’clock.

Five till six was the designated free hour, with dinner to follow at six-thirty. Tonight, there’d be a welcome campfire for all the campers – although, there was a campfire of some sort every night – and then depending on the age of the children, bedtime would follow afterwards. Because the Ash cabin was one of the slightly older cabins, their lights-out time wouldn’t be until about ten. Then again, nobody ever seemed to go to bed on time the first night.

But they still had two hours to kill until the free hour. With classes starting up tomorrow, it meant that everyone had time to properly explore and familiarise themselves with the camp.

“Shall we go see what kind of wildlife is around for us to track?” Ray asked, and the boys who’d been in the Ash cabin last year rolled their eyes.

“Fine,” one of them said. “As long as we’re right back here for the free hour.”

“Scout’s honour,” Ray grinned, which earned a couple of groans from the guys (Nate included). “Let’s go!”

* * *

“Right then, ladies,” Zari addressed the campers in front of her. “It’s almost five o’clock, which means you get an hour to go wherever you want to in the camp. You can go do arts and crafts, or go for a swim in the lake, or help set up the campfire if you really want to. Just stay out of the forest, okay? It’s not safe without a counsellor there.”

Even before she’d finished, the six girls rushed off, splitting into groups and sprinting for their area of choice. It didn’t surprise Zari at all to see a lot of campers rushing for the toilet blocks with swimsuits in their hands, ready to change and head out to the lake. She took a deep breath and walked over to where Mona was standing, a little shell-shocked, by the door to the cabin.

“Get used to this,” she advised. “There’s a lot of running.”

“That’s okay,” Mona said brightly, her voice only shaking a little. “I’m sure I’ll adapt in no time.”

“Have you ever been to summer camp?” Zari asked conversationally. She realised that she didn’t really know much about Mona.

“Once,” Mona said. “When I was a kid. I didn’t like it much. But now that I’m a grown-up, my parents think I should try it again only as a counsellor this time. You know, one last summer of freedom before I start college.”

“How old are you?”

“Eighteen,” Mona said. “As of last month.”

“Happy belated birthday,” Zari offered her a smile, and Mona beamed back.

“Thanks! When’s your birthday, Zari?”

“Two weeks’ time,” Zari said. “The twenty-fifth, to be exact.”

“Wow, that must be so cool,” Mona gushed. “Always being at camp for your birthday!”

“It’s a pretty sweet deal,” Zari agreed. “My family and I have an early celebration before I go, and then I get to spend the actual day with my friends here.”

“Did you guys become friends through being counsellors?” Mona asked. “It’s just, I don’t know anyone here.”

“Well, Sara and I have been best friends since we were fifteen,” Zari said, a smile taking over her face. “I was miserable for ages my first summer here as a camper; didn’t want to be here, didn’t want to make friends. But she was annoying enough to wear me down eventually, and once I became friends with her, I sort of became friends with Ray and Nate and Mick, too.”

“Were you in the same cabin?” Mona asked.

Zari nodded. “For two years. Then Sara and I both took a couple of years off once we got too old. But I guess we missed it too much, so the summer after freshman year of college we both came back as counsellors. The boys went straight into it as soon as they turned seventeen, though. I’m not sure if they could ever leave this place for a single summer.”

“Wow,” Mona said wistfully. “Must be nice to have, like, a second home.”

“It is,” Zari said. “And you’ll find yours here, too.”

“But I don’t know anyone yet,” Mona said.

“You know me,” Zari shrugged. “And I’m pretty much the best co-counsellor ever, so you’ll be fine.”

Since Zari didn’t have to supervise anything during the free hour, and neither did Sara, they decided to go through some soccer drills. The pitch was situated on the edge of the forest, right next to the entrance for the main walking trail and continuing down the field. Two old nets marked each end of the pitch, and the grass had been freshly cut and painted with the appropriate lines. Zari grabbed a bag of soccer balls from the shed next to the pitch and dumped them in the centre circle while she waited for Sara. She hadn’t bothered changing out of her counsellor’s uniform, since they were just going to practice a few exercises that Zari was planning on going through with the kids tomorrow.

Zari scraped her hair back into a ponytail, tying it with the band on her wrist as she spotted Sara approaching at a jog. Zari jerked her chin upwards in greeting and Sara gave her a little wave as she got closer.

“Sorry, Z,” she said, drawing to a halt beside Zari. “Had to fend off Taylor’s archery questions.”

“Say no more,” Zari grinned. Last summer, Taylor had followed Sara around like a puppy. According to her, archery was the coolest thing ever, which made Sara the coolest person ever for teaching it.

“Quick warm up?” Sara asked. Zari nodded, stretching out her limbs before taking off in a brisk jog around the perimeter of the pitch. She didn’t check behind her; she knew Sara would be following.

They’d only gotten about halfway round, just passing the entrance to the forest, when Zari looked over her shoulder to reply to something Sara had said. The next thing Zari knew, she was colliding with something and tumbling to the grass.

“Watch it!”

Zari groaned. She recognised that voice from earlier today, and she really couldn’t have run into anyone worse. Rolling up and onto her feet, Zari stared down at an irate Charlie, who glared back up at her.

“Do all Americans not look where they’re going, or is it just you?” Charlie asked. Zari rolled her eyes, reluctantly offering a hand to help Charlie get up – an offer that was decidedly ignored.

“I turned around for, like, a second,” Zari huffed, as Charlie clambered to her feet and brushed off her jeans. “Where did you even come from?”

Charlie nodded to the forest. “I was minding my own business, getting to know the trails. Just came back to camp when you ran me over.”

Zari looked at Sara with her eyebrows raised. Sara was watching the exchange cautiously, as if she wasn’t sure whether or not to intervene. Zari glanced back over to Charlie, who was brushing back stray curls of hair out of her face.

“Why were you even running around the football pitch like a loon?”

“I’m the soccer instructor,” Zari said. “Sara and I were warming up ready to go over some drills for tomorrow.”

Charlie looked to Sara, only just now seeming to realise that she was there. “Oh. I see.”

She fixed her gaze on Zari once more, and Zari gritted her teeth at the look of apathy on her face, like she didn’t think it was a good enough reason. Charlie smirked as she appeared to notice the tightness of Zari’s jaw and Zari tried to force herself to relax. She didn’t want to give Charlie any ammunition whatsoever.

“If you don’t mind,” Zari said hurriedly; a dismissal as polite as she could manage under the circumstances.

Charlie simply rolled her eyes and stepped out of their path. “Don’t let me stop you from wasting your energy.”

Zari snorted, sending a glare Charlie’s way as she pushed off into a run, faster than she had been going before. She left Charlie in her dust, not even sparing a glance for Sara’s benefit as she finished her warm up lap.

She’d only encountered Charlie twice today, but it was already two times too many.

* * *

Ava spent her free hour mixing and subsequently delivering the evening feeds for Joey and the rest of the horses. There were a lot of buckets to carry, and the horses made her job of distributing them a lot harder by jostling for position as Ava walked in a big circle, dropping the feeds at intervals.

None of them barged her, though, they knew to respect her personal space even if they were hungry.

Once all thirteen horses were eating happily, Ava pulled out the soft brush she’d stuck in the pocket of her shorts and set to work brushing the dust off each of them. Most of the horses ignored her, keeping their heads firmly down in the feed buckets as she worked on getting them clean for tomorrow. She started with the horses she knew were the most fidgety, as the food would only last them so long.

Once they’d finished eating, Ava trailed after each horse or pony individually that was still dusty. It took her more than the whole allotted hour before she was done, collecting the empty buckets into a stack and taking them back to the tack shed ready for their breakfast tomorrow.

While the free hour may be free for the campers, it was the time that the counsellors got the most work done. Either they were supervising the kids, or they were preparing activities for the next day. Ava didn’t mind, though. Even though she had to work instead of simply keeping an eye on things, it meant she had an hour to herself away from everyone else.

Away from the campers, and the main part of the camp itself, and Sara…

Although, since the breakfast incident, Sara hadn’t been nearly as insufferable. Maybe the arrival of the kids had put her in a good mood, or at least given her something to do other than snark at Ava.

Locking the tack shed behind her, Ava slipped the key – attached to a loop of string – around her neck. She tucked it under her shirt carefully, a habit she’d kept since Rip first gave her the key at the start of last summer (she’d relinquished it back to him at the end of camp only to receive it again yesterday).

Ava made her way back to the mess hall, checking her watch to see that it was six-thirty. Dinner would be served now, and Ava’s stomach growled loudly as a reminder that she, too, was now extremely hungry.

She arrived at the mess hall to see most of the other counsellors already sat down and eating, along with the campers. Ava went up to get her food – mac and cheese tonight, which was nice, if a little uninspired – and then surveyed the room, trying not to feel like she was back in high school as she looked for a table to sit at.

Her eyes immediately sought out Nora, who was sitting at a table next to Ray. Ava’s heart sank as she saw who else was at the table: Nate, Mick, Zari, a woman she didn’t recognise… and Sara.

Ava swallowed. She didn’t really know anyone else here at camp, not well enough to sit with at any rate, and Nora was her only real friend… but she was sat with some of the people that Ava really didn’t want to align herself with, even if one of them was her co-counsellor. Especially if one of them was her co-counsellor.

Before she could ponder the merits of sitting alone too much, Nora caught Ava’s eye, and waved her over. Flashing a tight smile, Ava made her way across the room, eventually perching on the end of the bench opposite her friend.

This put her next to the only person at the table she didn’t recognise, a young-looking woman with short black hair. The woman smiled widely at her, and Ava was immediately wary.

“Hi,” the woman greeted, holding out her hand for Ava to shake. “I’m Mona.”

“Ava,” she said, hesitantly shaking Mona’s hand. Her first thought was that Mona seemed very excited simply to be here. Cynically, she wondered how long that would last.

“How are Joey and the rest of them?” Nora asked, pausing her conversation with Ray.

Ava shrugged. “Same as ever.”

“Is Joey one of the kids?” Mona asked interestedly.

Ava shook her head, but it was Nora who actually answered.

“No, he’s Ava’s horse. She’s the riding instructor.”

“Joey isn’t mine,” Ava reminded her. “He belongs to Rip, technically. I just borrow him for the summer.”

“Right, sorry,” Nora grinned apologetically. Ava knew she didn’t spend any time with the horses. As a rule, Nora tended to stay away from big animals.

“You’re the horse riding instructor?” Mona gasped. “That’s so cool!”

“It’s whatever,” Ava said, but she had to fight to hide a smile. She glanced up at Nora, who was looking at her with a _see, told you so_ expression.

“You guys ready for the welcome bonfire tonight?” Ray picked up the conversation, speaking loudly enough to get the attention of the whole table.

Mick grinned. He’d been in charge of the fire unofficially since he was twelve, and officially since he was seventeen. Ava wasn’t entirely sure if he actually _taught_ anything, but she supposed he was useful if anyone needed any heavy lifting done around camp.

“Dude, it’s going to be awesome,” Nate said, holding out a fist for Ray to bump.

“It’s going to be _lit_ ,” Ray joked, and a chorus of exaggerated groans went up from the rest of the table.

Nate rolled his eyes. “Nope. I’m withdrawing my fist bump for that.”

“It was horrific,” Nora admitted, maintaining her view even when Ray pouted. And Ava knew how soft Nora became whenever Ray pouted.

“Let’s just make it a good one,” Sara spoke up, and Ava’s eyes flickered over to her of their own accord. “We need to start the summer off right.”

“Too late for that,” Zari muttered darkly. At the look she received from everyone, she heaved a sigh before explaining quietly. “Charlie.”

Nora groaned. “Say no more,” she said. “She’s my co-counsellor and I think she’s been avoiding me ever since she got here.”

“Well Z quite literally ran into her during free time,” Sara explained. “It would’ve been a great meet-cute if it hadn’t been so snarky.”

Zari glared at her. “Not to mention the fact that we’d already met, even if she wasn’t the worst person on the face of the planet.”

“Where even was she?” Nora asked.

“Coming out of the forest,” Zari said. “She said something about getting to know the trails, I don’t know.”

Nora considered this. “That would actually make a lot of sense. Apparently, she’s the hiking leader.”

“Well, that seems like a disaster waiting to happen,” Sara said, eyebrows almost in her hairline.

“Ava said the same thing,” Nora laughed, and Sara met Ava’s gaze, a little surprised.

Ava shrugged, and a flicker of a smile crossed Sara’s face. But it was gone almost immediately as Sara cleared her throat and went back to her dinner. Ava pushed her food around the plate, trying very hard not to think about the split-second in which she and Sara had felt completely aligned. It had been a weird feeling, however brief.

* * *

Once Ray had led the campers in a few singalongs, he allowed the other counsellors to break out the snacks. They took precautions to make sure the little kids didn’t get too close to the fire – which was essentially Mick glaring at anyone who crossed the invisible boundary, something that was scary enough to school most of them into submission.

Mick had intimidated Ray when they’d first met. In Ray’s defence, they’d both been ten years old at the time. That, and Mick had been send to summer camp explicitly because he was too much of a troublemaker for his parents to handle all year round. He and Sara – who had hit it off straight away – had made fun of Ray that summer, even though Ray had been to camp before and they hadn’t, but they’d forgotten their differences and had become friends the next year as little kids were apt to do.

Ray didn’t hold grudges, so he’d been all to happy to accept their friendship when they were ready to offer it. For a couple of years, it had been him, Mick, Sara, Leonard, Kendra, Carter and Jax – all hanging out together and playing soccer or going for a swim. There may have also been some sneaking out and midnight walks in the forest, but Ray had been so terrified of getting in trouble that he hadn’t told anyone about that.

Then one summer, Leonard, Kendra and Carter just hadn’t come back. All three of them had moved with their families to other parts of the country during the year, and it had left their group feeling very small indeed.

But that had been the summer that Nate had first come to camp, and so Ray couldn’t be too sad about it. He and Nate had become best friends pretty much instantly, and he felt like more of a brother to Ray than his _actual_ brother at this point.

The legends had a bit of a habit for ‘adopting strays’ – new campers and now counsellors seemed to kind of fall in with them. It seemed to be happening with Nora, and maybe it would even happen with Ava and Mona now.

Ray spotted Nora talking with the two of them a little ways aside from the fire, and he smiled. Nora looked more relaxed than he remembered her being, although maybe it was just him that she was tense around. Things between them had been a little uncertain ever since the end of last summer.

Trying his hardest to not get lost in memories, Ray tore his gaze away from Nora. He needed to clear his mind, so he grabbed Nate as he was passing and started up a duet of ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ – a song that Nate was never able to refuse singing with him.

As they were singing, loud and extremely off-key, Ray couldn’t help but seek out Nora once again, seeing her looking at him with a fond, if slightly exasperated, expression on her face. Ray fought down a blush at the thought of the soft curve of her lips as she smiled, and carried on with the song.

* * *

Tuesday was the first day of actual camp activities, and even though Sara had only arrived less than forty-eight hours ago, it had seemed like a lot longer. She was eager to get out there and actually teach some archery.

The first night had gone pretty well. The kids were tired after the welcome bonfire – which was, after all, the intention – and had all slept soundly and with little fuss. That meant that Sara and Ava had both managed to get a decent night’s sleep, and Sara found out that Ava was definitely a morning person when she’d woken up to find her co-counsellor’s bed empty.

Taylor had managed, through no small amount of intimidating Rip, to get the Oak cabin the first slot in her schedule, and so at ten o’clock Sara led the six of them out onto the range. Eight targets stood, a roped-off area of the forest a good distance behind them, and there was a line chalked in the ground thirty feet away. The line was well-worn, and the grass patchy, after years of being used as the anchor point (and tantrum point) for the campers.

“Alright ladies,” Sara said, and the girls immediately fell silent. “Lesson one. Bow safety.”

Sara went through the rules with them – the obvious ones like ‘no pointing a loaded weapon at anyone’ and ‘no retrieving the arrows until I say it’s clear’, as well as the ‘make sure you’re wearing your arm guard’ and ‘it would help if you kept your hair out of your face for this especially if there’s a breeze’.

The last one inspired a few ‘missing wig’ jokes that Sara didn’t particularly understand, but they all listened to her in the end, so she didn’t really mind. Her own hair was up in an ever-so-slightly messy bun in preparation for the day.

Sara drew an arrow from her quiver, nocking it and letting it fly in quick succession. It hit the target dead-centre, and there were a few awed gasps from the campers behind her. Sara turned back around to face them, letting the bow rest by her side.

“It takes years,” she told them, “but if you listen, and work hard, and keep going even when you feel like giving up, you can do cool things like that.”

Sara grinned at them, deciding not to tell them that she’d skipped breakfast to get in a last-minute practice with the targets. She’d kept up with archery during the off-season, but it had been useful to get her eye in back at camp this morning. Plus, it would’ve been really embarrassing if she’d failed right off the bat.

“Who’s ready to become an archer?”

Three hour-long sessions, followed by a lunch break, followed by three more hour-long sessions later, Sara was just about ready to collapse. She knew she was being dramatic, but during the off-season she didn’t have time to spend literally six hours a day doing archery. Her arms and shoulders were getting sore, and Sara rolled her shoulders back and forth in an attempt to ease the stiffness in her muscles. It was times like these that she wished the camp had bathtubs. But a shower after the campers had gone to bed was probably the best thing she was going to get.

Once she had tidied up the archery range, Sara went back to her cabin. There was still over an hour until dinner and Ava was likely out taking care of the horses, so she’d have the place to herself for a little while. It was in Sara’s best interests to stay well away from the creatures. She liked dogs well enough, but horses were a little bit terrifying. They were tall, and they bit, and they kicked… Sara just preferred to keep her distance, in any case.

She collapsed on her bed, leaning her bow against the little bedside table and undoing the leather armguard she had on. Sara massaged her arm with her opposite hand, sighing as she was able to work out a little of the tension. Ideally, she’d get someone else to do it, but all of her friends had proved themselves to be horrible at giving massages except for Ray, and Sara didn’t want to bother him every day for one. She could manage.

Sara yawned, frowning at the sudden exhaustion that overtook her. Her bed was so comfortable, and Sara found herself drifting in no time. Maybe if she just took a quick nap before dinner…

Letting her eyes close fully, Sara fell asleep almost immediately.

It felt like five minutes later that she was being shaken awake. Sara’s instincts, and several years of martial arts training, took over and even before her eyes were open she was lunging for whoever was standing over her.

She heard a yelp from underneath her as she landed on her knees with a hand pinning the intruder down onto the rug.

“What the _fuck_?” the voice said, and Sara’s blood ran cold as she realised who she’d just tackled to the floor.

She blinked, and Ava’s disbelieving face swam into focus. Sara snatched her hand back from Ava’s shoulder and she stumbled upwards to her feet, freeing her. She sat back down on the edge of her bed, letting Ava scramble to her feet.

“Sorry. Habit,” Sara mumbled, rubbing her eyes. “I don’t really do being shaken awake.”

“Yeah, I got that much,” Ava said. “And here I was actually being concerned when you didn’t show for dinner.”

“I didn’t… what time is it?” Sara asked.

“Nearly eight,” Ava said.

Sara scrambled for her phone to confirm. “Shit. It was only meant to be a quick cat-nap.”

“I’m guessing you were out like a light after classes were over,” Ava commented, eyeing Sara a little warily as she sat down on her own bed. Sara couldn’t exactly blame her, after what had just happened.

“Yeah, I guess so,” she said. “Must not have realised how tired I was. Where are the kids?”

“At the campfire, probably,” Ava shrugged. “I don’t know. Ray and Nora suggested I find you first. I don’t think anyone really trusts me with the campers after last year.”

“The prank?” Sara furrowed her brow. “Why would that make you untrustworthy?”

“It wouldn’t,” Ava said. “I think it’s the kids that Nora in particular doesn’t trust.”

“Right,” Sara said. She couldn’t pretend that she wasn’t insanely curious about the deeper meaning behind the lake incident – she wasn’t a total idiot, she knew there was _something_ Ava wasn’t telling her – but she didn’t particularly want to have her head bitten off for asking. And for all they had been getting along better the past day, they weren’t friends by any stretch of the imagination, so Sara didn’t feel like she _could_ ask.

Sara still thought Ava was too rigid. Ava no doubt thought Sara was too relaxed. They were just keeping things civil for the sake of the kids. And their jobs. Sara scoffed internally. When she put it that way, they sounded like a failing couple on the brink of divorce.

Sara’s stomach rumbled loudly. Knowing she’d missed dinner completely by now, Sara pulled a bag out from under her bed. It was chocolate, as she’d mentioned yesterday, and she knew that this probably shouldn’t be her dinner, but it was either chocolate or nothing.

Just to be polite, she offered some to Ava, who wrinkled her nose in distaste.

“Don’t tell me you don’t like chocolate,” Sara said. “Cause that’s a dealbreaker if we’re going to be co-counsellors.”

“No, I’m just full,” Ava said. “You know, from actual food.”

Sara snorted. “That’s pretty bold of you, assuming that what they serve in the mess hall counts as actual food. What was it tonight, turkey dinosaurs?”

Ava glowered. “Shut up. There were little Stegosaurus ones.”

She looked so indignant that Sara had guessed it right, that Sara couldn’t help but laugh. It only seemed to intensify Ava’s glare, but Sara wasn’t all that worried about Ava actually blowing up at her over turkey dinos.

“I guess I just pictured you as someone who ate really healthily and shit,” Sara said, taking a bite out of the chocolate bar she’d just finished unwrapping.

“I am, usually,” Ava admitted. “But camp is camp. You eat what you’re given.”

“My life motto,” Sara grinned. “Plus, I’m pretty sure there’s a joke or an innuendo in there somewhere.”

“Really?” Ava deadpanned. “How could you possibly make a dirty joke out of that?”

“It’s one of my special skills,” Sara shrugged. “I can make a dirty joke out of pretty much anything.”

“Let’s not test that theory,” Ava said.

“Your loss, Sharpe.”

Ava rolled her eyes. “You’re a child. And a pain in the ass.”

“So are you,” Sara pointed out, unable to help getting a little defensive. “Like I get it, you have various issues with me and everyone else at Lakewood. But what I don’t get is why.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Ava said. “The kids pushed me into the _lake_.”

“I know, but—”

“Everyone was laughing at me, do you know how awful that was?” Ava continued, heat creeping into her voice. Suddenly, the distance between their beds felt like a chasm. “Except for Nora, they thought it was hilarious. Look at old stick-up-the-butt Sharpe, she had it coming for daring to try and bring some order to the camp.”

“Ava—”

“No!” Ava said, and she got to her feet. For a moment, Sara thought she was going to storm out, but she started pacing back and forth, her voice rising in pitch and volume as she continued. “I think it’s wonderful that everyone was able to have a laugh at my expense. Really, I’m so glad that people were entertained, and that they had something to gossip about with all the friends they had. Meanwhile, my co-counsellor, who doesn’t even like me very much at this point in time, is having to pull me out of the water – which was freezing, by the way – because I’m struggling to breathe and my chest is closing up from the shock of it all.”

“I didn’t—” Sara tried again, but Ava barrelled on.

“And _of course_ it didn’t cross anyone’s mind to check that I would be safe during this harmless little prank,” she said, her pacing reaching frantic levels now. “Because nobody would’ve guessed that Ava Sharpe, fully grown adult, _doesn’t know how to swim!_ ”

Ava took a gasping breath, almost like she was reliving the ordeal. Because it had been an ordeal for her, that much was clear to Sara now. She watched, stunned into silence, as the anger left Ava’s body in one deep breath. Ava flopped back down onto her bed, bringing a hand up to cover her face.

Sara felt stupid.

She felt so damn _stupid_ , because it was true. The possibility of Ava not being able to swim hadn’t even crossed her mind, because Sara kind of assumed that everyone over a certain age knew how to swim. But Ava didn’t.

Ava couldn’t swim, and she had found herself pushed into deep, ice-cold water in the middle of the night.

No wonder she avoided the lake now.

“Ava, I’m so sorry,” Sara said quietly. “I didn’t… I should’ve… I don’t even know what I’m trying to say, but I’m sorry.”

She could see the tension in Ava’s body even as she was lying down. Ava sighed, moving the hand away from her face slowly.

“It happened, there’s nothing you can do about it now.”

“I know, but I was still wrong,” Sara said.

“I didn’t mean to tell you, it just… it kind of slipped out,” Ava said, puffing out an annoyed breath. “I don’t want any pity.”

“I’m not pitying you, I’m just apologising,” Sara promised. “And I know that I shouldn’t have laughed and gossiped anyway, even if it wasn’t clearly such a traumatic thing for you. I know. I’m just sorry.”

“Thank you,” Ava mumbled. “For saying that, I mean. I don’t think I realised just how much I’ve been holding that against you until now.”

“Oh,” Sara said, fidgeting uncomfortably. She wasn’t so much used to moments that felt this raw and uncertain. She didn’t like it. “Are you still going to hold it against me? I wouldn’t entirely blame you if you did, to be honest.”

“I’m sure I’ll be able to find it in my heart to forgive you eventually,” Ava said, and the sarcasm in her voice helped to ease some of the tension in the room. “It just sucked. Being the one that everyone was laughing at.”

“Did Nora know, when she pulled you out of the water?” Sara asked.

Ava shook her head. “She was just being a good person, I guess. She knows now, though.”

“Who else knows?”

“Just you,” Ava said quietly. “And that’s only by accident, so don’t go telling anyone else.”

“I won’t,” Sara promised. “I wouldn’t.”

Ava narrowed her eyes, regarding Sara with a piercing look for a long moment before evidently deciding that Sara’s word was trustworthy, and relaxing slightly. The silence stretched on to the point of becoming uncomfortable and Sara struggled to find a way to fill it. She didn’t like awkward silences.

“I’m gonna go, uh, shower,” she said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder and trying not to noticeably wince at the weakness of her exit. “Stiff muscles after today, and the nap.”

Ava nodded, clearing her throat. “Yep, that’s… I might go hang out with Nora or something at the campfire.”

“Okay,” Sara said, moving to grab her towel.

“Okay,” Ava echoed.

Sara just about remembered her shampoo, deciding to wash her hair while she was at it, and let out a huge breath as she closed the door behind her. She hadn’t been awake again for long, and that whole interaction had been a lot to take in.

Trying to clear her mind for now, because it was better than wondering what the hell just happened, Sara walked off down the darkening path towards the showers.

* * *

For Zari, the next few days passed without much incident.

Part of her kept a wary eye out for Charlie. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to avoid her, or find and confront her about the several things that annoyed Zari about her, but their paths didn’t cross again until Saturday.

The kids in her cabin had settled in well so far, and everyone seemed to be enjoying her soccer classes. All in all, things were going smoothly. Almost too smoothly. Which is why when, upon sending her class of fourteen to sixteen year old boys to go practice the latest drill, Charlie turning up to ruin her day didn’t come as a surprise.

She was leading Zari’s own cabin back from a hike in the forest, chattering away to them quite happily, which immediately made Zari suspicious. According to everything she’d heard this week about Charlie, she wasn’t much of a chatter, and she especially was not this happy to be leading walks in the woods.

Zari headed her off at the entrance to the forest, in almost the exact same place they’d collided several days ago. Charlie looked somewhat surprised to see her, an excited squeal from one of the girls at seeing Zari catching her attention.

“Alright, Z?” she asked.

“Don’t call me that,” Zari said immediately. “Only my friends call me that.”

“You mean we ain’t friends?” Charlie put a hand to her chest, mock-wounded. “That hurts.”

Zari rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I hope you’re not filling my kids’ heads with evil plans and bad advice.”

“I would never,” Charlie said, the glint in her eyes suggesting otherwise.

Zari balled her hands into fists, resisting the urge to take her campers by the shoulders and steer them away from this woman who was clearly a horrible influence and should not be left in charge of children. She felt sorry for Nora, and for the cabin she had to run with Charlie.

“They’re kids, okay,” Zari said lowly. “Just… whatever you’re planning on telling them is a good idea, don’t.”

“You’re so quick to judge, do you know that?” Charlie hissed, taking a step closer to Zari.

Zari stood her ground. “Only when I see cause for concern.”

“And what is it about me that concerns you so much, eh?” Charlie asked. “Is it my hair, my clothes, my accent? Go on.”

“It’s the fact that you turned up a day late,” Zari fired back. “It’s the fact that the first thing you did when you got here was ignore someone who needed your help. It’s the fact that Nora says you’ve been avoiding any and all responsibilities with your own cabin! It’s your general attitude, and it’s the matter of me getting the impression that you’d rather be anywhere but here!”

She took a deep breath, stepping back slightly when she realised how intense she’d gotten. Her kids were looking between the two of them in fascination, and Zari tried very hard not to give away how nervous she was feeling all of a sudden about calling Charlie out.

“Feel better now that’s all out in the open?” Charlie smirked at her, before walking off and whistling for the kids to follow her. “Onwards, children.”

Zari gritted her teeth, trying not to let the fact that Charlie didn’t rise to the bait as she had get to her. It was all well and good, Charlie getting to act like the bigger person in front of Zari’s cabin, but two could play at that game.

Zari just needed to find suitable ammunition.

* * *

“And then she just walked away, can you believe that?” Zari said, and Nora got a sinking feeling on her behalf. “Just whistled for the kids, _my_ kids, and took them on their merry way.”

“She thrives on causing chaos,” Nora said, doing her best to placate Zari, who was practically hissing at them all over the table in the mess hall. Lunchtime wasn’t exactly the best time to be having this particular conversation, after all.

Not that the subject of conversation was actually around to hear it, of course. Nora had never seen Charlie at a mealtime. She half-wondered if Charlie actually ate anything. She briefly entertained the thought that Charlie wasn’t human, before brushing it off.

“Just try to ignore her,” Ray suggested. “She clearly wants a reaction from you.”

“It’s really hard to ignore her when she’s up in my face all the time,” Zari grumbled.

Sara snorted, and Zari whipped her head around to glare daggers at her best friend.

“Got something to say?”

Sara shook her head with a barely-concealed grin, and even Ava was biting her lip to stop a smile spreading over her face. Nora was glad to see Ava looking a bit happier than she had done at the start of the week. There’d been some awkwardness in her interactions with the rest of the group when she’d started sitting with them, but it seemed to have eased slightly over the last day or two. She still sat on the end of the bench, but she wasn’t half-hanging off it in an attempt to be as far away from the others as she could anymore.

“This isn’t funny, guys,” Zari said, addressing all of them. “This is war.”

Nora exchanged a look with Ray, pressing her forehead against his shoulder to hide her face as her body shook with silent laughter. For a moment, things were blissful, and then she remembered what had happened at the end of last summer.

Or, rather, what had _almost_ happened.

She pulled back sharply, refocusing her attention on her plate as she sobered up rapidly. Ray sent her a concerned glance, and she lifted one shoulder helplessly. He knew as well as she did why things were a little awkward.

“Guys!” A voice from the door caught everyone’s attention.

Nora looked over to see Mona booking it towards them, weaving in and out of tables of confused campers and counsellors alike. Mona skidded to a stop in front of the table Nora was at, eyes fixed on Zari.

“The kids… Charlie…” Mona wheezed, and Zari was on her feet straight away.

“Mona, what’s going on?” Nate asked.

“Charlie only just came back from the hike with the Cedar cabin,” Mona gasped. “Zari, I think one of our kids is hurt.”

“Oh, that _tears_ it,” Zari muttered darkly, stalking towards the door.

The rest of the table looked at each other for approximately two seconds before they all stood up as well, following on Zari’s heels as she raced for the door. Ava ordered everyone else to stay where they were with a single command.

Zari broke into a run as soon as she left the House, the rest of the group right behind her. Nora wasn’t entirely sure what was about to happen, but she knew that she wasn’t going to miss it for the world.

As they approached the group led by Charlie, the anticipation of a big blowout increased tenfold. Charlie looked to be carrying one of the girls in Zari and Mona’s cabin, but to Nora, it didn’t look like any of them were particularly concerned about anything.

“Hey guys,” Charlie said, lifting her chin in greeting, as her arms were full carrying a six year old child. “We have a slight boo-boo.”

“Oh, we’re gonna,” Zari threatened, almost snatching the child from Charlie’s arms. Sara laid a placating hand on Zari’s shoulder as she checked the child over for major injuries. There was no gushing blood, no screaming, no missing limbs, and after a few moments Zari calmed a little.

“What happened?” Ray asked Charlie, who shifted uncomfortably.

“The girls wanted to explore a new trail, but it was a bit rockier than previously thought,” she said. “We had a bit of a scraped knee incident.”

Nora craned her head to see a strip of cloth tied around the child’s knee, a dark patch of blood starting to seep through.

“By the time I realised how late we were, we had to pick our way back across the rocks and back the way we came,” Charlie explained. “Her leg was hurting so I carried her.”

“Are you okay, Jessie?” Zari asked the girl, who nodded, sniffling ever so slightly but mostly no worse for wear after the ordeal. Zari glared at Charlie. “Don’t go off the marked paths.”

“Well, I know that now,” Charlie said. “We just thought an adventure would be fun.”

“When you’re out there, you are solely responsible for their safety,” Zari said. “I know you think this is all fun and games, but you have an actual job to do.”

And with that, Zari turned on her heel, stalking off back to the House – presumably to find an antiseptic wipe and a better band-aid than what Nora had just realised was the bottom of Charlie’s counsellor shirt. The jagged edges of the garment hanging from Charlie’s frame was a slight giveaway, after all.

Charlie huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Thanks for sacrificing your uniform for a child’s bloody knee, Charlie,” she grumbled, sighing in defeat and walking back towards the Birch cabin. Nora wasn’t sure whether or not to follow her. In the end, she decided Charlie probably wanted some space, and so she helped Mona take the remaining kids to the mess hall, as more than one of them was starting to complain about an empty stomach.

* * *

“Well, that was a day and a half.”

Ava’s head jerked up as Sara entered the cabin, immediately faceplanting on her bed.

“You’ve been on Zari duty, I take it,” Ava said, marking the page in her book and putting it down. Sara just groaned. “How is she?”

“Less stabby,” Sara said. “I don’t think she’s actually going to murder Charlie now, which is an improvement.”

It had been about thirty hours since what they had dubbed ‘the Zari-Charlie standoff’, where Jessie had come back from the forest with her minor injury, and from the sounds of it, Zari seemed to have cooled off a lot.

“I get where she’s coming from, though,” Ava said thoughtfully. “Charlie put one of the campers at risk by going off the trail, and it could’ve been so much worse than a scraped knee.”

“Yeah,” Sara sighed. “But she’s just stressing herself out at this point. The kid’s fine, Charlie actually seemed sorry about it, and Rip is none the wiser.”

“Do you think not telling him is the best course of action?” Ava asked. She’d been antsy all day about the prospect of the camp director finding out about the mishap.

“What Rip doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” Sara shrugged. “Besides, I don’t think he’d actually do anything. It’s a well-known rule that he has to have at least one British counsellor at all times, and she’s the only one so he can’t fire her, clearly.”

“Your grasp of logic amazes me sometimes,” Ava said in wonderment.

“Thanks, I think,” Sara said.

There was silence for a little while, but for the first time, it wasn’t stifling. Sure, things had been a little awkward this week after Ava’s slip-up, but since then Sara hadn’t made fun of her once. It was a little weird, and Ava wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

It wasn’t like she missed Sara’s more snide remarks, but the teasing and digging at each other had been its own weird kind of fun, in a way. At least now they seemed to be getting back into the bantering aspect of their interactions, even if it lacked the intent of before.

“Are you going to tonight’s campfire?” Ava asked conversationally.

Sara hummed, face still half-buried in her pillow. “I might sit this one out. There’s literally a campfire every night, it’s not like I’m missing out.”

“That’s a fair point,” Ava said.

“Are you going?”

Ava shook her head. “No. Nora said something about having a serious conversation with Ray, so I don’t think me being there is the best idea.”

“I see,” Sara said. “Well, looks like it’s just you and me, Sharpe.”

“Rough deal,” Ava said, and Sara gasped dramatically.

“I’ll have you know I’m excellent company,” she said, and Ava rolled her eyes.

“I have a book,” she said, nodding to where it lay abandoned on her bed.

“Yeah, and you look really into it,” Sara deadpanned. “Wait. We should have a midnight feast.”

“It’s half past eight.”

“Which means it’s midnight somewhere in the world,” Sara reasoned, bringing out the bag of chocolate, which Ava hadn’t seen since Sara had slept through dinner on Tuesday. “Are you gonna take one this time?”

She rustled the bag in front of Ava excitedly, and Ava really didn’t have the heart to refuse. Potentially against her better judgement, she reached into the bag and drew out a little chocolate bar.

Sara grinned smugly, like she’d won something.

Ava rolled her eyes, but she unwrapped the chocolate anyway, hoping that this tentative almost-friendship that seemed to have sprung up on her wouldn’t crash and burn before it had even gotten off the ground.

But if this was the way to become Sara’s friend and therefore have an easier summer than last year, then Ava was all for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!
> 
> my twitter is @shegaylol and my tumblr is ilovemyships (my twitter is probably the best place for writing updates)
> 
> if you'd like to, please feel free to leave a comment for me to read at 4:45am tomorrow when i have to get up for work! it would make the start to my day a lot better!
> 
> until next time!

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for trying out this first chapter! as always my twitter is @shegaylol and my tumblr is ilovemyships. i tend to post my progress etc mostly on twitter, so if a chapter is taking a while, or you want to know how the writing is progressing or my headcanons for when the legends were campers feel free to shoot me a tweet/tumblr ask :))
> 
> okay i have to get up for work at 4:45 and it's getting late now so i'll shut up!


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